Iowa City schools face possible closures, teacher cuts in $13.8 million budget reduction

Iowa City schools face possible closures, teacher cuts in $13.8 million budget reduction

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - School closures and cuts to teacher positions are possible as the Iowa City Community School District works toward $13.8 million in spending reductions for fiscal year 2028.

Interim Superintendent Amy Kortemeyer told the Iowa School Budget Review Committee on Wednesday there is “no easy answer” to addressing the district’s financial problems.

Kortemeyer said the district is convening a committee to review school boundaries and consider school closures. The focus is on elementary schools, which leaders say have extra capacity after the district moved sixth graders to middle schools.

When asked which staff positions could be considered for cuts, Kortemeyer said “any and all staff.”

She said the goal is to keep reductions as far from classrooms as possible, but committee members questioned how realistic that would be given the size of the cuts.

“I do believe there are some positions, as we contemplate what this looks like, that we do keep us a little bit farther away from the classroom than the actual classroom teachers, I am not saying it’s not going to impact our classroom teachers,” Kortemeyer said. “There’s some wiggle room there for us to be looking at other positions that are not directly impacting or working one-on-one on a day-to-day basis. Please don’t hear me say we’re not touching classroom teachers.”

District leaders outlined improvements they have made since the financial crisis came to light. Committee members also pressed them on how the problems developed.

Wednesday’s meeting in Des Moines was informational, and the committee took no action. It will report what it heard to the Iowa Department of Education in November.

Wednesday evening, Iowa City Community Schools sent TV9 this statement:

The Iowa City Community School District appeared before the state’s School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) today to provide an informational update on our financial progress following our previous appearance in June.

District representatives shared an update on the financial work completed to date and responded to questions from committee members. Today’s meeting was informational, and no action was taken by the SBRC.

The district was also informed that we will be asked to return to the SBRC for meetings in December and January. We will continue to provide the committee with information and updates as requested.

The SBRC will release a summary of today’s meeting in the near future. We remain committed to the work underway to strengthen the district’s financial position and will continue to keep our community informed as this process moves forward.

Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.